Don's Tuesday Column

           THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson     Red Bluff Daily News   1/16/2018

                    Mr. Statham’s vote; DACA notes

“Dr. King’s dream is our dream. It is the American Dream. It’s the promise stitched into the fabric of our Nation, etched into the hearts of our people, and written into the soul of humankind.” (excerpt from President Donald Trump’s weekly address) I start with that quote because it should be a sentiment that rises above partisan politics, as have many utterances and proclamations by every American president, even Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.

We have, however, reverted to a nearly tribal, “my side good, their side bad” level of antipathy that was prominent during George Bush’s term, well described as “Bush derangement syndrome” by Charles Krauthammer. Had Bush miraculously walked on water, his haters would have assumed he knew where the rocks were; had he healed someone, critics would have charged him with wanting to deny disability payments for the person.

Acidic, anathema-laced comments following the posting of Trump’s MLK tweet confirm that, for the Trump-hating-and-deranged left, similar sentiments abound. I doubt, after reading Mr. Statham’s column (“My take on the changing presidency”), that the Northern California native, past Republican state representative and media figure is among the haters. His take does, however, seem to conform to the “never Trump” cynicism among Republican establishment types and Weekly Standard conservative critics that seem to acknowledge no good deeds by Trump.

Perhaps Mr. Statham is unaware that Tehama County’s vote went to Trump by 65 percent to Clinton’s 28 percent; Gary Johnson’s 4 percent were non-left libertarians and illustrate the massive anti-Clinton, anti-Obama leanings locally. Would Mr. Statham grace us in a future column with his chosen candidate for the primary (mine was Cruz) and for whom he voted for president in November? Those names might help Republican Trump supporters understand him. I may be the only Daily News opinion columnist that voted with our super-majority for Trump.

Does Mr. Statham really believe that President Trump doesn’t know “the ramifications of the tax cuts that he signed into law”? Was it mere coincidence that America’s economy and taxes grew after both the Kennedy and the Reagan tax cuts? Democrats are apparently congenitally incapable of limiting spending on programs; that doesn’t undermine the wisdom of cutting taxes.

Rather than offer generalized disparagement of President Trump’s tweets, thereby committing the intellectual sin of letting others do one’s thinking, Mr. Statham might use the Internet to find “@realDonaldTrump” and read his actual words every day. I’m just saying it’s a bit closed-minded to simply dismiss the communication of what may turn out to be the most consequential conservative president in our lifetimes. The economy’s up, judicial conservatives are on the courts, illegal immigration is way down; businesses—particularly small businesses—are more confident than they have been in decades. That polling number among America’s entrepreneurs is the real presidential approval number since all Dems disapprove of Trump but even Hillary’s voters can see their confidence in job-seeking and business success growing.

Notably, author Bryan Garner, who traveled and collaborated with Justice Scalia, wrote “Nino and Me,” a memoir of his decade-long friendship with the late Supreme Court Justice. “Justice Scalia thought it was most refreshing to have a candidate who was pretty much unfiltered and utterly frank…He was fascinated by the fact that Trump was so outspoken in an unfiltered way, and therefore we were seeing something a little more genuine than a candidate whose every utterance is airbrushed.” Would Scalia have found President Trump too frank? We don’t know.

Consider the related kerfuffle over what epithet Trump may, or may not, have used in a meeting with six members of Congress looking to provide protection to the children brought to America illegally by their parents. Democrats utter epithets at their Trump-voting neighbors and states, even at Israel. Kennedy, Johnson, Obama all had potty-mouths. Bovine scat is nonpartisan.

The American people want 1) protection for children who’ve done nothing wrong, 2) increased border security, and 3) an end to “chain migration” and “lottery” systems. It would seem to reasonable people to be a common sense deal: all of the above. However, the “open borders” Democrats and reform/amnesty Republicans wanted Trump to sign on to something with legalization first, no real changes to “chain” or “lottery” immigration and nebulous, if ever, real border barriers. Without walls or double fencing, the only thing preventing future waves of migrants hot-footing it across the border is the commitment of future presidents to defending America’s sovereignty and law. Obama didn’t. Democrats won’t ever do it.

I’m glad Trump expressed righteous indignation at their insistence that we encourage people from “hell hole” nations, because…diversity and multiculturalism. Just shut up if you don’t accept the dilution of traditional western American values by importing people with little or no respect for self-government, constitutional rights, religious and personal freedoms and self-sufficiency. Are we hurt by accepting those from any nation—even hell holes like Somalia, much of Africa, India or most majority-Muslim nations—with skills, degrees and American values. No.

Moving on, I see Democrats making a big mistake by digging in against seriously increased border security—they won’t approve of the 700 miles of fencing/walls that they all voted for 10 years ago. They refuse a reasonable compromise for getting the DACA children legalized and may refuse to fund the government by Friday. If they force a government shutdown, they won’t have Obama making the American people pawns in a massive propaganda stunt with a “close the Washington monument/national parks” strategy. Trump will shut down so much relatively unnoticed government activity that people will say “Yeah, cut more of my taxes.”